Heavy cutbacks
This growing dissatisfaction is due to the cutbacks by
the chain: between 2008 and 2012 the number of employees dropped by 120.000
to 1.3 million. This was in contrast to the 455 new locations opened up
in the same period, bringing the total number to 4005.
According to the company itself, the results of
Bloomberg are not representative. WalMart says it surveys 500.000 customers every month
about the length of check-out lines, cleanliness of the shops and helpfulness
of the staff. “Respondents give the company good marks: satisfaction would be
between 90% and 95%”, says WalMart. According to the company it were isolated cases
and they were not representative for all stores in the United States.
‘Isolated cases’-excuse infuriates customers
That statement triggered a lot of responses:
more than a thousand people, spread across the US, wrote an e-mail to confirm
the complaints. Most of them were loyal customers of the chain, which they
liked because of its low prices and large assortment of products.
Two out of three Americans visit WalMart each
month. Annually the company has 6.6 billion visitors, a number that rose by 23
million last year.
